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You are here: Home / Recipes and Cooking Tips / Creating Inexpensive Lean Hamburger

Creating Inexpensive Lean Hamburger

May 1, 2009 by Alea Milham 4 Comments

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When I buy hamburger I prefer very lean meat. Unfortunately, very lean hamburger rarely goes on sale. My local store regularly puts 85% lean hamburger on sale. To create “leaner’ hamburger I drain the fat off after I am done browning it. Since fat can’t go down the sink, I drain it into an empty coffee container. After I have drained most of the fat into the coffee container, I will sometimes rinse the hamburger with water to create “super lean” meat.

Use a colander to drain fat from cooked hamburger When I buy hamburger I buy it in packages of 3lbs. or more. Instead of dividing the hamburger when it is raw, I cook the entire package, then I divide it up between several Pyrex containers and freeze it. This speeds up dinner prep on hectic evenings.

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About Alea Milham

Alea Milham is the owner of Premeditated Leftovers and the author of Prep-Ahead Meals from Scatch. She shares her tips for saving money and time while reducing waste in her home. Her favorite hobby, gardening, is a frugal source of organic produce for her recipes. She believes it is possible to live fully and eat well while spending less.

Comments

  1. Alea says

    June 13, 2009 at 4:42 am

    LOL! My city-boy husband will not be surprised to hear that I have something in common with somebody named "hillbilly housewife"! I'm glad to hear there are at least 3 of us doing this.

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  2. Brenda says

    June 11, 2009 at 4:49 pm

    I learned that little "lean" tip from the Hillbilly Housewife and I drain & rinse my ground beef every time too! I usually package my raw meat in 1 pound Ziplock freezer bags, but it makes so much more sense to cook it all first! Thanks so much for the tip.

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Welcome. I'm Alea!

On Premeditated Leftovers I share simple recipes made with whole foods, practical shopping tips, time saving techniques, and meal planning strategies. I also share tips for minimizing food waste, so more of the food that is purchased ends up on the table.

While volunteering as a budget counselor, I realized that food is the element of most people’s budgets where they have the greatest control. I set out to develop low-cost recipes from scratch to prove it’s possible to create delicious meals on a limited budget. Eating well while spending less is about more than just creating recipes using inexpensive ingredients; it’s about creatively combining ingredients so you don’t feel deprived and are inspired to stick to your budget.

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